In recent years, considerable attempts have been made to apply speech recognition systems to learning of foreign languages. Specifically, a learner uses a foreign language learning device to read out one or a plurality of sentences in a foreign language so that the pronounced sentence(s) is input to a personal computer (computing machine) through its voice input function. A speech recognition system incorporated in the personal computer adapted to that foreign language evaluates to what degree the sentence(s) read out by the learner can accurately be recognized and then a resultant rating is displayed as a feedback to the learner.
However, the speech recognition system used by the conventional foreign language learning device is originally devised with the objective of replacing keyboard input to the personal computer with voice input. Accordingly, sentences pronounced by the learner are recognized on the basis of one sentence and the recognized sentence and an original sentence are compared to output the result of comparison. Therefore, the learner can merely know a rating for the sentence evaluated as a whole.
In actual, it rarely occurs that the rating is the same for the entire sentence. Generally, a higher rating is achieved for a specific part of the sentence while a lower rating is given for another part.
Then, the learner cannot know, from the rating of the whole sentence, which part of the sentence is low in terms of the rating for pronunciation by the learner, particularly when the learner receives a low rating. Consequently, the learner repeatedly pronounces the entire sentence again and again until the rating rises, resulting in a problem that the learning efficiency is impaired.